Every international
student in New York.

There are 71,296 of them, from 199 countries, across 87 campuses. This is the whole count — not the top ten.

The official site of the New York International Student Association
Published 17 August 2026
Sources: IPEDS Fall 2024, US Department of Education · SEVIS July 2026, US Department of Homeland Security

All 199 countries, to scale Move across to read a country

1 China199 Vanuatu

East & Southeast Asia South & Central Asia Everywhere else

71,296international students in the five boroughs

87campuses with at least one

199countries of citizenship

57%are graduate students, not undergraduates

Where they come from

Half of them come from two countries.

China sends 34,320 and India sends 32,589. Between them that is 50.1% of every international student in New York State — two dots doing the work of a hundred.

中国ChinaभारतIndia

The other half is 197 countries.

Every one of them is here, and almost none of them are here in numbers large enough to be noticed. This is the half nobody publishes.

한국KoreaবাংলাদেশBangladeshViệt NamVietnamไทยThailandTürkiyeTürkiyeΕλλάδαGreeceمصرEgyptУкраїнаUkraine

117 of them could fit in one lecture hall.

A hundred and seventeen countries have fewer than a hundred students in the entire state. Thirty-eight have fewer than ten. If you are from one of these, you will not find a group for your country at your school, because there is nobody to start one with.

ལྷོ་མོནBhutan 32ދިވެހިރާއްޖެMaldives 3ኤርትራEritrea 2Vanuatu1

All of it lands in one city.

Seventy-one thousand two hundred and ninety-six people, from a hundred and ninety-nine places, inside the same five boroughs. Almost none of them will ever meet each other.

E pluribus unum. Out of many, one — the oldest motto this country has, and the plainest description of what a hundred and ninety-nine passports in one city amounts to.

New York71,296

01 — The count

These are counts,
not estimates.

Every college in the United States is required to file an enrollment return. We read the returns, all of them, and publish what they say.

The figure people get wrong is the last one. Only 8% of undergraduates in this city are international. Among graduate students it is 29% — so most international students in New York are not undergraduates, and a page written for freshers misses the majority of them.

Everything below is drawn from the same two federal sources. Where a number is broader or narrower than it looks, we say so beneath the table rather than in a footnote nobody opens.

02 — The campuses

Two schools hold
nearly half of them.

New York University has 19,202 and Columbia has 13,812. Ten schools hold 72% of the city total. These are the fifteen largest.

International students by campus, New York City, Fall 2024
1	New York UniversityManhattan	19,202
2	Columbia UniversityManhattan	13,812
3	The New School / ParsonsManhattan	3,457
4	St. Francis CollegeBrooklyn	3,011
5	Pace UniversityManhattan	2,771
6	Monroe UniversityBronx	2,032
7	School of Visual ArtsManhattan	1,925
8	Fordham UniversityBronx	1,812
9	CUNY Baruch CollegeManhattan	1,736
10	Pratt InstituteBrooklyn	1,734
11	CUNY LaGuardia CCQueens	1,672
12	Teachers College, ColumbiaManhattan	1,507
13	CUNY BMCCManhattan	1,432
14	CUNY Graduate CenterManhattan	1,062
15	Fashion Institute of TechnologyManhattan	1,038

Undergraduate Graduate

St. Francis College is the row that surprises people. Three years ago it had 361 international students; it now has 3,011, and 2,796 of those are graduate students. Monroe University grew the same way. Both expanded online and hybrid master's programmes quickly, so the number of people physically on those campuses is smaller than the count suggests.

03 — Who this is for

The 197 countries
that aren't China or India.

Anyone on an F-1 or J-1 visa at any college in the five boroughs. Undergraduate or graduate, first semester or final year, community college or Ivy League.

That is not a courtesy line. China and India together account for 50% of international students in New York State. The other half is divided between 197 countries.

117 of the 199 have fewer than a hundred students in the entire state. If you are from one of them, there will never be enough people at your school to start a group of your own. That is the gap this exists to cover.

04 — What we are doing

Founded this month.
Nothing to overstate yet.

No chapters, no dues, no events. This is the order of work, and we would rather publish it than pretend to be further along.

List the groups that already exist

Most campuses have their own international student group. No list of them exists, so none of them are in contact with each other. Building that list is the first thing we will do: all 87 campuses, who runs each group, how to reach them.
Write the guidance nobody owns

Visa timelines, OPT deadlines, opening a bank account with no credit history, signing a lease with no US guarantor. Every school answers these separately, from scratch, every year.
Bring people together across campuses

Not sorted by nationality. A PhD student at CUNY and a design student at Parsons have more in common with each other than either has with their own consulate.

05 — The register

Find yourself in it.

Published figures stop at the top ten. This one does not stop. All 199 countries of citizenship recorded in New York State, in order.

Search for a country

199 of 199 countries

Students by country of citizenship, New York State, July 2026
1	中国China	34,320
2	भारतIndia	32,589
3	Canada	5,991
4	한국South Korea	5,581
5	বাংলাদেশBangladesh	3,501
6	臺灣Taiwan	2,405
7	BrasilBrazil	2,352
8	नेपालNepal	2,250
9	TürkiyeTurkey	2,204
10	Colombia	2,132
11	PilipinasPhilippines	2,056
12	پاکستانPakistan	1,630
13	日本Japan	1,623
14	United Kingdom	1,586
15	Việt NamVietnam	1,445
16	France	1,416
17	ไทยThailand	1,330
18	MéxicoMexico	1,271
19	ItaliaItaly	1,184
20	ישראלIsrael	1,063
21	Nigeria	988
22	DeutschlandGermany	963
23	EspañaSpain	956
24	香港Hong Kong	907
25	Zimbabwe	854
26	РоссияRussia	852
27	ایرانIran	722
28	ҚазақстанKazakhstan	718
29	Australia	705
30	Indonesia	687
31	Singapore	639
32	PerúPeru	625
33	Ghana	604
34	Ecuador	602
35	السعوديةSaudi Arabia	556
36	Argentina	499
37	Jamaica	492
38	မြန်မာBurma	462
39	ΕλλάδαGreece	436
40	مصرEgypt	378
41	ShqipëriAlbania	359
42	PolskaPoland	354
43	Chile	320
44	الجزائرAlgeria	316
45	OʻzbekistonUzbekistan	306
46	УкраїнаUkraine	296
47	Kenya	281
48	საქართველოGeorgia	280
49	South Africa	261
50	ශ්‍රී ලංකාSri Lanka	259
51	المغربMorocco	258
52	NederlandNetherlands	253
53	Malaysia	250
54	SchweizSwitzerland	247
55	República DominicanaDominican Republic	242
56	SverigeSweden	230
57	TürkmenistanTurkmenistan	226
58	الأردنJordan	216
59	Trinidad and Tobago	207
60	ÉireIreland	196
61	BelgiëBelgium	190
62	AotearoaNew Zealand	188
63	ኢትዮጵያEthiopia	173
64	RomâniaRomania	172
65	الكويتKuwait	170
66	Portugal	166
67	NorgeNorway	159
68	Venezuela	159
69	The BahamasBahamas	152
70	МонголMongolia	150
71	AzərbaycanAzerbaijan	148
72	СрбијаSerbia	140
73	КыргызстанKyrgyzstan	137
74	ÖsterreichAustria	133
75	Guyana	133
76	MagyarországHungary	131
77	PanamáPanama	120
78	لبنانLebanon	117
79	Costa Rica	114
80	ČeskoCzech Republic	114
81	الإماراتUnited Arab Emirates	102
82	Honduras	101
83	Uganda	98
84	Rwanda	93
85	Tanzania	91
86	DanmarkDenmark	88
87	Bolivia	86
88	Guatemala	85
89	БългарияBulgaria	84
90	ΚύπροςCyprus	80
91	El Salvador	79
92	ТоҷикистонTajikistan	78
93	Côte d’Ivoire	77
94	SuomiFinland	69
95	БеларусьBelarus	65
96	CamerounCameroon	65
97	澳門Macau	64
98	Uruguay	63
99	افغانستانAfghanistan	62
100	HrvatskaCroatia	62
101	កម្ពុជាCambodia	61
102	تونسTunisia	61
103	Zambia	61
104	ՀայաստանArmenia	60
105	Dominica	57
106	Paraguay	56
107	SlovenskoSlovakia	55
108	LietuvaLithuania	51
109	Burkina Faso	49
110	Grenada	49
111	ÍslandIceland	47
112	KosovaKosovo	45
113	RD CongoCongo (kinshasa)	44
114	AyitiHaiti	44
115	Niger	44
116	Antigua and Barbuda	43
117	Saint Lucia	42
118	SénégalSenegal	42
119	LatvijaLatvia	40
120	BéninBenin	38
121	Saint Kitts and Nevis	38
122	Saint VincentSaint Vincent and the Grenadines	36
123	سورياSyria	34
124	Barbados	33
125	Malawi	33
126	Sierra Leone	33
127	འབྲུགBhutan	32
128	МакедонијаMacedonia	32
129	Crna GoraMontenegro	31
130	البحرينBahrain	30
131	Botswana	30
132	Mali	30
133	Nicaragua	30
134	Bosna i HercegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina	27
135	LëtzebuergLuxembourg	27
136	اليمنYemen	27
137	The GambiaGambia	25
138	MauriceMauritius	25
139	SlovenijaSlovenia	24
140	العراقIraq	23
141	Malta	23
142	West Bank	23
143	GuinéeGuinea	22
144	Belize	21
145	Bermuda	20
146	EswatiniSwaziland	19
147	Gabon	18
148	عُمانOman	18
149	EestiEstonia	17
150	Gaza Strip	17
151	Liberia	17
152	MadagasikaraMadagascar	17
153	MoçambiqueMozambique	17
154	قطرQatar	17
155	Moldova	16
156	السودانSudan	16
157	Angola	13
158	Togo	13
159	Suriname	12
160	ليبياLibya	11
161	South Sudan	11
162	CongoCongo (brazzaville)	9
163	Cayman Islands	8
164	SoomaaliyaSomalia	8
165	TchadChad	7
166	Namibia	7
167	Aruba	5
168	Burundi	5
169	CuraçaoCuracao	5
170	Guinea EcuatorialEquatorial Guinea	5
171	Lesotho	4
172	Monaco	4
173	Papua New Guinea	4
174	Sint Maarten	4
175	Turks and CaicosTurks and Caicos Islands	4
176	Cabo VerdeCape Verde	3
177	ދިވެހިރާއްޖެMaldives	3
178	Stateless	3
179	Timor-LesteTimor-leste	3
180	Andorra	2
181	Bassas da India	2
182	Brunei	2
183	CentrafriqueCentral African Republic	2
184	ኤርትራEritrea	2
185	Fiji	2
186	Guernsey	2
187	Guiné-BissauGuinea-bissau	2
188	Liechtenstein	2
189	Saint-MartinSaint Martin	2
190	Seychelles	2
191	Anguilla	1
192	Cuba	1
193	Gibraltar	1
194	Jersey	1
195	ລາວLaos	1
196	موريتانياMauritania	1
197	Montserrat	1
198	Solomon Islands	1
199	Vanuatu	1

133,558 active F and M student records, New York State, July 2026. Broader than the count above: it includes students on OPT, in language programs and at secondary schools. July falls outside term time and runs lower than the autumn figure. Country names are given as written locally where we could verify the spelling.

06 — Join

Be one of the first hundred.

Nothing to sign up for yet. No membership, no fee, no obligation. Send one email and you will hear from us when there is something real to turn up to.

Tell us your school, whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student, and where you are from. If there is something you wish existed for international students in this city, say so — that is how we decide what to build second.

Add me to the list

Email: info@nyisa.org

Every internationalstudent in New York.

Half of them come from two countries.

The other half is 197 countries.

117 of them could fit in one lecture hall.

All of it lands in one city.

These are counts,not estimates.

Two schools holdnearly half of them.

The 197 countriesthat aren't China or India.

Founded this month.Nothing to overstate yet.

List the groups that already exist

Write the guidance nobody owns